Post Reformation Church Interiors

The Ecclesiological Society

Communion arrangements in the century after the Reformation
1560 - 1640

Click on any of the pictures below for an enlarged image. Use your 'back' key to return.

From Richard Day, A Booke of
Christian Prayers, 1578 This is a communion service in a parish church in about 1570. The Elizabethan communicants kneel all round the table, which is away from the end wall.
The table itself is probably placed length-wise, rather than across the width of the chancel. In the parlance of the time, it was 'table-wise' rather than 'altar-wise'.
The service is in English, the Prayer Book being almost identical to the present Book of Common Prayer (1662).

Communion cup of 1569. Photograph from Oman, English Church Plate 597-1830, 1957 Note the communion cup in the above picture. Compare it with the typical Elizabethan one to the left.
The cup will be new: it has to be, for in contrast with pre-Reformation practice, all the communicants will drink from the cup, which is therefore necessarily larger than the earlier chalices.
Note that the only decoration on the table is the bread (ordinary loaves) and the communion cup.

Picture from John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (more commonly, Book
of Martyrs)
Warning! - detailed picture, 110kb file, may be slow loading
The picture on the left, also originally engraved in the 1570s, shows a complete church interior converted for the new, Protestant, worship.
A baptism is taking place at the upper right.
At the front of the building a preacher is holding forth. Most of the congregation are standing, the men with their hats on. A number of them are discussing the sermon vigorously.
After the sermon, there may be a communion service. Two flagons of wine stand ready for use at the back of the church. The communion table is again away from the wall, ready for the communicants to gather round.

Flemish high mass, end of 15th
century, from P. Dearmer, Fifty
Pictures of Gothic Altars, 1910

Forty years earlier, this same building, these same people, even the same priest, would have been holding a very different type of communion service.
Here, at high mass in a large church, the priest stands at a stone altar at the east end of the chancel, facing east, elevating the host high for all to see. The language of the service is Latin. To his left the subdeacon holds up a torch; to his right the deacon swings a censer.
These pictures emphasise how much the chancels of parish churches needed to be changed to cope with the new theology introduced at the Reformation.
This is easy to forget, because so few of these post-reformation arrangements are still in existence.

Copper engraving of 1624, published
in Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1991. In print
(Cambridge University Press)
paperback, ISBN 0 521 45827 7 Why is this? The picture on the left is of communion in a fashionable London church (St Mary Overie) in the 1620s. Note the table-wise arrangement.
Within twenty years of this print being made, the situation changed, and very quickly. This was due to a determined effort on the part of the church authorities, under Archbishop Laud, to reintroduce altarwise arrangements. Once again the table was placed 'altar-wise' across the east end of the chancel, separated from the rest of the chancel by a rail.
The Civil War caused a hiatus. But during the 1660s and onwards, the table-wise arrangment largely disappeared. The chancel seating that went with it also went.
Just a few examples survived. But most of these were wiped out by Victorian restoration
Today, the remains of just a few early communion arrangements can still be seen in churches in England and Wales.

From Francis Bond, The Chancel
of English Churches, 1916.

From Gerald Randall, Church
Furnishing and Decoration in
England and Wales, 1980.
For example, until the restoration of the1880s, the table was placed 'table-wise' at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. The first, rather old, photo on the left shows this.
The more modern photo below shows the table moved back. But the seventeenth century chancel seating arrangements can still be seen. Note how the benches go right round the east end.
(This second photo is from Gerald Randall's helpful book on church furnishings, now out of print, but a good introduction to the subject, covering all periods.)

From Mark Chatfield, Churches
the Victorians Forgot, 1979

From C. W. O. Addleshaw &
Frederick Etchells, The Archi-
tectural Setting of Anglican
Worship, 1947.
Here at Hailes, also Gloucestershire, the original communion table survives and has now been replaced in its tablewise position.
The seventeenth century communion benches remain on the south and north sides (they were removed from the east end during the Victorian restoration). Although not very clear from the photograph, the benches are double ranked.
(This picture is from Mark Chatfield's lovely book of pre-Victorian interiors - out of print, but well worth buying if you see a copy.)
The sketch plan shows the arrangement before the Victorian restoration.

There are a handful of other survivals, not shown here.
But for the most part, these communion arrangements of the first century after the Reformation, so different from what we now think of as the norm of Anglicanism, have quite disappeared.

How can you find out more? There is no up to date book dealing with church interiors 1560-1660, though scholars are working in this area.
The books by Mark Chatfield, and by Addleshaw & Etchell's are worth reading. So is Buildings, Faith and Worship, by Nigel Yates (1991).
And keep your eyes open for surviving portions of seventeenth-century chancel seating, often wrongly assumed to be Victorian choir stalls.

Click here for other pictorial essays.

January 2000
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From Richard Day, A Booke of Christian Prayers, 1578	This is a communion service in a parish church in about 1570. The Elizabethan communicants kneel all round the table, which is away from the end wall. The table itself is probably placed length-wise, rather than across the width of the chancel. In the parlance of the time, it was 'table-wise' rather than 'altar-wise'. The service is in English, the Prayer Book being almost identical to the present Book of Common Prayer (1662).
Communion cup of 1569. Photograph from Oman, English Church Plate 597-1830, 1957	Note the communion cup in the above picture. Compare it with the typical Elizabethan one to the left. The cup will be new: it has to be, for in contrast with pre-Reformation practice, all the communicants will drink from the cup, which is therefore necessarily larger than the earlier chalices. Note that the only decoration on the table is the bread (ordinary loaves) and the communion cup.
Picture from John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (more commonly, Book of Martyrs) Warning! - detailed picture, 110kb file, may be slow loading	The picture on the left, also originally engraved in the 1570s, shows a complete church interior converted for the new, Protestant, worship. A baptism is taking place at the upper right. At the front of the building a preacher is holding forth. Most of the congregation are standing, the men with their hats on. A number of them are discussing the sermon vigorously. After the sermon, there may be a communion service. Two flagons of wine stand ready for use at the back of the church. The communion table is again away from the wall, ready for the communicants to gather round.
Flemish high mass, end of 15th century, from P. Dearmer, Fifty Pictures of Gothic Altars, 1910	Forty years earlier, this same building, these same people, even the same priest, would have been holding a very different type of communion service. Here, at high mass in a large church, the priest stands at a stone altar at the east end of the chancel, facing east, elevating the host high for all to see. The language of the service is Latin. To his left the subdeacon holds up a torch; to his right the deacon swings a censer. These pictures emphasise how much the chancels of parish churches needed to be changed to cope with the new theology introduced at the Reformation. This is easy to forget, because so few of these post-reformation arrangements are still in existence.
Copper engraving of 1624, published in Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1991. In print (Cambridge University Press) paperback, ISBN 0 521 45827 7	Why is this? The picture on the left is of communion in a fashionable London church (St Mary Overie) in the 1620s. Note the table-wise arrangement. Within twenty years of this print being made, the situation changed, and very quickly. This was due to a determined effort on the part of the church authorities, under Archbishop Laud, to reintroduce altarwise arrangements. Once again the table was placed 'altar-wise' across the east end of the chancel, separated from the rest of the chancel by a rail. The Civil War caused a hiatus. But during the 1660s and onwards, the table-wise arrangment largely disappeared. The chancel seating that went with it also went. Just a few examples survived. But most of these were wiped out by Victorian restoration Today, the remains of just a few early communion arrangements can still be seen in churches in England and Wales.
From Francis Bond, The Chancel of English Churches, 1916. From Gerald Randall, Church Furnishing and Decoration in England and Wales, 1980.	For example, until the restoration of the1880s, the table was placed 'table-wise' at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. The first, rather old, photo on the left shows this. The more modern photo below shows the table moved back. But the seventeenth century chancel seating arrangements can still be seen. Note how the benches go right round the east end. (This second photo is from Gerald Randall's helpful book on church furnishings, now out of print, but a good introduction to the subject, covering all periods.)
From Mark Chatfield, Churches the Victorians Forgot, 1979 From C. W. O. Addleshaw & Frederick Etchells, The Archi- tectural Setting of Anglican Worship, 1947.	Here at Hailes, also Gloucestershire, the original communion table survives and has now been replaced in its tablewise position. The seventeenth century communion benches remain on the south and north sides (they were removed from the east end during the Victorian restoration). Although not very clear from the photograph, the benches are double ranked. (This picture is from Mark Chatfield's lovely book of pre-Victorian interiors - out of print, but well worth buying if you see a copy.) The sketch plan shows the arrangement before the Victorian restoration.
	There are a handful of other survivals, not shown here. But for the most part, these communion arrangements of the first century after the Reformation, so different from what we now think of as the norm of Anglicanism, have quite disappeared.
	How can you find out more? There is no up to date book dealing with church interiors 1560-1660, though scholars are working in this area. The books by Mark Chatfield, and by Addleshaw & Etchell's are worth reading. So is Buildings, Faith and Worship, by Nigel Yates (1991). And keep your eyes open for surviving portions of seventeenth-century chancel seating, often wrongly assumed to be Victorian choir stalls.